


Total Brain(cell) Annihilation

by Felinefeeling



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Cause come on Akashi needs friends, Epic Bromance, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Self-Insert, Terrible Humor, The other schools will be there too no worries fam, There's so many gross Akashi tags ew, but also not really, it be like that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24368314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felinefeeling/pseuds/Felinefeeling
Summary: “Are you going to keep staring at me, dude.”  I glanced at the little menace that currently shared the restroom with me. I wasn’t surprised by the fact that he was full-on glaring at me. To be fair I did-- kind of-- deserve it. God, my mom was going to be pissed. A month in and I already made a mess at school. I most definitely could kiss my peaceful life goodbye.
Relationships: Akashi & Being Happy, Akashi Seijuurou & Generation of Miracles, Akashi Seijuurou & Original Character(s), Akashi Seijuurou & Rakuzan High Basketball Team Members
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	1. Soup Man

**Author's Note:**

> ;))))))

“Are you going to keep staring at me, dude.” I glared at the short little menace that currently shared the bathroom with me. I wasn’t surprised by the fact that he was full-on glaring at me. To be fair I did-- kind of-- deserve it. Okay, let me begin from the start.

My life was perfectly ordinary for a sixteen-year-old kid. I went to school; I did my homework and I came back home to deal with the existential dread of being alive. You may ask yourself, “existential dread?” Yes, existential dread. It kinda happens when you regain the memories of a past life when you are only but a babe. Thankfully, I was eight when it happened, but the details are not important. Anyways, besides the whole “reborn” thing I had quite a nice life. 

That is until I started high school again. Being in high school is like dealing with overgrown toddlers that had too much chocolate. Horrifying and unpredictable. There’s also the fact that most highschoolers are giant dicks. Hormones will do that to you. High school should never be where you peak in life, in my past life I hadn’t, and I was quite sure that it wouldn’t be the case in my current one either. Alas I was right, and I wasn’t bothered by it.

I wanted a peaceful school life. I figured if I kept my head down and went about my day not doing anything dumb, I would be fine. I would make some friends; I’d join some meaningless club and I would have a standard school life. But there was one fatal flaw in my plan to have an ordinary school life. I am dumb. No really, I am so dumb that even toddlers are shocked at the idiotic things I can do. That’s not to say I am not intellectually smart, but I just have the propensity to do things that are truly idiotic. Anyways, you might wonder what I did to ruin my peaceful high school life. Well…

“Sakurai, I dare you to do a flip right now, no balls.” I looked up from my phone to stare at my fellow idiot, Shuhei. I met him at the start of the school year, roughly a month ago, and we had become quick friends. He stared down at me and just by his eyes I could tell he thought I was going to do it. Of course, no respectable person would do a flip in the middle of a busy school cafeteria. Especially so if it was a school for rich kids. 

“Or are you too chicken to do it?” I have to admit it, he was a cocky brat. If that is how he wanted to play, then he was in for something else

I jumped from my seat at our table and slung my arm across his shoulder. “Shuhei, how dare you! I thought we were homies, but I see that our brotherhood meant nothing to you” I whined at him. Shuhei jabbed me in the ribs and I had to dance away to avoid the hit. I pouted at him, “Not cool man, not cool.”

I fixed my blazer and stood in a Hero pose. I wagged my finger at him and smiled. “, but to answer your question, damn right I’m doing the flip. I am no chicken, my good sir.” He gave me an exasperated look which prompted me to widen my grin in return. “Now this? This is an Epic moment”. I said, which I followed by doing a flip in front of the whole cafeteria. When I landed on my feet, flawlessly may I add, everyone slow clapped. It was a moment like out of the movies. 

At least I wished that’s what happened. Sadly, it did not happen. 

After my feet left the air Shuhei and some other friends at our table started whooping and cheering my name. A girl carrying some soup in her food tray was walking by our table, at the same time a guy with ridiculous neon red hair walked by.

My feet proceeded to end the girl’s tray career which sent the soup flying in the air making her yelp. The power ranger guy stopped after hearing all the commotion and got a face full of soup. And yes, my friends cheered harder when they saw the guy drenched in soup, not that I saw it since I landed face first whilst spread like a starfish. Not a flattering look.

I groaned in pain and gingerly got up. Damn, I bet I lost some brain cells in that fall. Not that I had many to begin with. I could hear the girl apologizing to someone. I figured it probably wasn’t me since I was the one that ruined her lunch. I winced when I finally got up on my feet. I was definitely going to get a killer headache afterward, hopefully, I wouldn’t bruise too much. I turned to the girl and asked her. “Shoot. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” She shook her head.

“No... I’m fine thank you. Everything is fine except for my…” she trailed off as she was staring at me. Her face went pale in shock, it would’ve been rather funny if I wasn’t rather concerned about her health.

My brow furrowed, “H-hey? Are you sure you’re okay fam?” She didn’t answer and just kept looking at me. “Do you want me to take you to the nurses’ office?” The only answer I got was an incoherent noise from her as she lifted her hand to point behind me.

That’s when I realized she wasn’t scared of me; she was mortified of what was behind me. I turned around and I was gifted with the glorious image of a random dude wearing what I assume was the girl's soup bowl as a hat. A pretty dapper look of it wasn't for the liquid pouring down his head. “Oh damn!”

The dude took the bowl off gracefully--how does one even do that-- and gave me the ugliest stare I had ever felt in my entire life. I then noticed that the dude kind of looked like a power ranger knock off. At the same time, I also noticed that my friends were silent. In fact, the whole cafeteria seemed to be eerily quiet or maybe I was just feeling self-conscious. It was probably the latter. Still, I wasn’t a dick or anything, so I rushed over towards power ranger dude, taking off my blazer and offering it to him. “Damn I’m sorry bro, I should’ve been more careful. What can I do to help?” 

Power ranger stared me down, brazenly rejecting my offer, “I don’t think a buffoon like you has the ability to even help himself, let alone another person.” I was shook, but to be fair it was my fault that he had soup everywhere, so I let it slide. He strode over towards the girl that had the soup. “And you,” he said to her, “, you should be more aware of your surroundings. Even an idiot should be able to avoid that hit.” 

He smiled at her; it wasn’t a pretty smile. “Hmm, I suppose both of you are less than idiots. Even idiots have the self-respect to not make a scene.” The hell did he say, was my only thought.

I shoved my way in between him and the girl, getting face to face with the tomato wannabe. “The hell did you say, man. She had nothing to do with this! Just because the soup fell on you doesn’t mean it’s her fault, and even if it was who the hell do you think you are to call her an idiot!?” His face did not change at all during my small little fit, “Now leave her out of this, if you want to blame someone, blame me, not some random passerby that got caught in the middle of this.”

“Very well, I blame you. This situation occurred only because of your moronic actions. Now if you excuse me, I’ll go ahead and excuse myself. Oh, but don’t worry, I’ll make sure to give you a fitting punishment.” He had the gall to say that to my face and then walk away as if nothing had happened. Well hell nah, I wasn’t going to let that happen. It was my problem, my fault and I was going to fix it whether he wanted me to or not.

“Oi! Wait up!” I chased after him, ignoring the calls of my friends in the background. “I said wait up dammit!”

Damn, he’s really fast. Or maybe I’m severely unfit. Maybe it’s both. Anyways, I followed him all the way to the restrooms. Which was probably a weird and creepy choice on my part, but it was too late by the point I thought about it. He entered the restroom first, but I quickly entered afterwards.

When I got inside, he was washing his hair in the sink. He had taken his blazer off and was just wearing his dress shirt.I debated whether I really wanted to help him or not. I mean yeah, he had been a total dick earlier, but I would’ve been one too if someone threw soup at my head because of teenage idiocy. 

I approached him with my hands up as a sign of hospitality or something. I remembered that being a sign of friendliness, I think so at least. “Listen man, I’m sorry. It was dumb of me to do a backflip in the middle of the cafeteria. And I’m sorry yo-”

I looked at him and he was like really frowning at me. And wow, his eyes were two different colors. “-ah! Oh, sorry. Your eyes are kinda weird. I mean! They’re cool, I guess… You really went all out with the anime character stereotype? Not that I can judge, been there done that. Hopefully, your hair dye doesn’t fade away b-”

“Can you shut your trap, you insufferable moron” he growled at me. For a second, I swore his eyes glowed. Or at least his yellow one did. Wack.

“What...?”

“I said can you shut up? It’s clear to see you can’t recognize when your betters are addressing you, and I don’t have the patience to deal with your idiotic behavior” he said while turning the faucet off and moving on to dry his hands.

“The hell is your problem man! Betters?! I have no “betters”! Like, I get that I did you dirty, but I already apologized and offered to help man! I didn’t come here to get a tongue lashing by a chuunibyou cosplayer!”

“Then pray tell, why did you come here?” He cocked an eyebrow. His face might have been intimidating if it weren’t for the soup in his hair or how his bangs stick to his face because of the water.

“Because you might be a dick, but I am not! At least not intentionally, I own up to my mistakes, so yeah even if you’re a douchebag I want to help you.” Power Ranger’s expression shifted. He still looked pissed and irritated, but maybe now there was some confusion there too.

“Now, take this,” I threw my blazer at his face. I snatched his blazer that was laying on the counters where the sinks were. “To clean yourself or whatever, meanwhile I’ll take yours to clean it up. Fairtrade.”

“...”

“Are you going to keep staring at me, dude.” I was getting quite pissed at the moment. Would it kill him to respond politely at least once! “Tch, whatever man. The name’s Sakurai. I’m from class 1-B. Come by my classroom tomorrow and I’ll have your blazer clean. See ya, dick.” 

Power ranger didn't answer me, he just kept looking at me. I left the restroom and I heard the bell ring so I had to rush to class. 

“Sakurai! Dude, are you alright man?” As soon as I got to class Shuhei ran over towards me, patting me down. Kind of uncomfortable, but I didn’t say anything cause he looked kinda worried. “He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

Shuhei kept checking me for some injury or something. After a bit, I pushed him away gently. I was not in the mood to have him all over my space. “I’m fine dude, also did who do what?” I questioned him.

“Akashi!”

“Whomst?”

He looked annoyed now. Good, it left a bitter taste in my mouth to see people worried about me. And a worried face wasn’t a flattering look for him. Shuhei continued, “Bruh, it’s the gu- “

Just as he was going to finish his sentence teach came in. She gave me a terrifying stare so I rushed towards my seat and got my stuff out. She would kill me in a heartbeat if I didn’t do as she said. Shuhei gave me a look as if saying ‘this conversation isn’t over yet’. He then faced forward towards the front of the classroom. Weird but also yikes, now that I think about it, it seems like people have just been staring at me left and right.

I decided to worry about it later and started to pay attention to the class. Hopefully, math would distract me from my woes, or at least put me to sleep. Before I forgot, I wrote ‘Akashi’ down in my phone’s notes. There! That would help me remember to ask Shuhei who this “Akashi” was. 

I looked at the blazer hanging on my chair. It was disgusting. God, my mom was going to be pissed. A month in and I already made a mess at school. I could kiss my peaceful life goodbye. I groaned letting my head hit my desk. This was not my day.


	2. Book Club

I stretched my hands in front of me, flexing my hands after they cramped from all the writing I had done during class. “Damn, Fujioka-sensei really went all out in the last class period!” I complained to Shuhei.

Shuhei slammed his bag on the floor, sitting down on the chair next to my desk. “Hell yeah, she did. I swear she’s the devil personified.” He dug his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling down his screen. Shuhei frowned, “Assigning two blocks worth of homework is nothing short of demonic.”

“Oof, I won’t fight you on that man.” Eyeing Shuhei’s phone and an idea popped in my head. I leaned back on my chair and swiped Shuhei’s phone from his hands. I jumped out of my seat and out of his batting hands.

“Oi!” he muttered angrily.

I could feel my eyes curve into crescent shapes as I smiled at him. Shaking his phone back and forth in the air, I taunted him. “But hey! At least we can help each other, right?” I batted my eyes at him prompting him to roll his eyes.

“Of course, we’re working on it together. Who else would I do it with?” My heart warmed at his easy acceptance. Shuhei was a true homie. “Now give me my phone, you rat!” He lunged at me as I scampered away from him, trying, and failing to stop myself from laughing.

“Aw. You say the sweetest of things bro.” I said clutching my heart with my hand. I would’ve kept teasing him, but patience was not Shuhei’s fort. “Anyways here you go.” I tossed his phone back, which he was not prepared for because he fumbled with it while swearing under his breath.

He angrily pointed a finger at me. “You’re a menace, an absolute menace!”

“You know it, baby” I wink at him, making him facepalm, muffling his following groan.

“Anyways,” Shuhei continued. “Do you know what problems we have to do? I wasn’t paying attention to Fujioka-sensei during class.

I rolled my eyes, “Of course you didn’t, and then you wonder why you do so badly on English.” He swatted his hand trying to hit me but I with my pro boxer skills obviously dodged. “It’s almost as if you never knew what was going on.”

“How dare you “at” me like that. You don’t pay attention either! I saw you, and you were so out of it dude.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong. Fujioka was good at teaching English but going over information you already knew was tedious at best, utterly exhausting at worst. I could say that to Shuhei, but nah. Instead, I just shrugged at him. “Nuh-uh, you don’t get to shrug at me-! We’re equally guilty.”

Oho? With those words, he fell for my evil, evil trap. I could see the realization bloom on his eyes as I smugly smiled at him. “Oh?” I raised my brow at him, “Then why, pray tell, do I have a hundred percent in the class.” I saw his shoulders tense and I took this as a sign; this was my win.

Shuhei spluttered, his face getting red. “You-I-Well-.” I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression. I doubled over, clutching my stomach as I wheezed. My laughter seemed to make him feel more embarrassment since he had gotten redder-- it wasn’t a bad color for his complexion. “Sh-shut up, dude! Not everyone is good at English! I mean-look at your Japanese grade, seventy-five percent on a language you already speak? Shake my head.”

I pressed a hand over my heart. He did have a point, kudos for that comeback. “Ouch. You don’t pull your punches, do you? But nah, I’m just messing with you, bro. We all have something we are bad at. For me it’s Japanese.” 

“You really are a menace. Anyways, problems?” He asked. Oh shoot, yeah, I probably should check what they were. I wrote them down on my phone, at least I think I did.

“Ah, right! Give me a second to check man.” I struggled to get my phone out of my pocket, in my defense our uniforms had stupidly short pockets. I opened my phone’s notes. “I wrote them down somewhere.” Shuhei rolled his eyes at me so I shrugged at him. It wasn’t my fault I had a hard time organizing my things. Thinking about it, didn’t I write something down to ask Shuhei later? I did, didn’t I?

“Bro hurry up. I have to go get my stuff ready for practice.” I could see his foot tapping on the floor rapidly. Shoot, he was right. Shuhei had baseball practice soon. Argh, I’d remember what I had to ask him eventually. It probably wasn’t anything important if I already forgot all about it. 

“Geeze man, I’m going, don’t rush m- Oh wait! I found it! We have to do problems one through twelve for block three. That’s not so bad, for block four we have to do problems one through…”

“Through?” Questioned me Shuhei.

“...three…” 

“One through three? Bro, that isn’t that bad.” He laughed, “I’ll even have enough time to do all my other homework!” He looked so happy and I hated to break Shuhei’s fantasy--no, his wish, but it had to be done. 

“No… Thirty…three…”

“...”

I had never seen someone’s face lose hope and happiness as fast as Shuhei’s did. He lost all emotion, all will to carry on. “Thirty-three?” He repeated. I nodded. Shuhei looked up as if asking a higher being for help. I will never know if a deity answered him or if silence was his apparent response, but he just resolutely nodded to himself.

Well…

Okay, he’s chiller about it then what I expected, maybe he won’t be that extra about i-

“GODAMNIT!” Shuhei grabbed his bag and chucked it at the wall. I watched it fly until it hit its mark. I heard a loud boom and then proceeded to stare, as his bag burst, sending water exploding everywhere and drenching the whole floor and wall. 

Without missing a beat, he yells, “FUCK”

I stared blankly at the mess he made and started cackling. “Oh my GOD! Bro! Did you-” I had to stop because I’m wheezing at this point. I braced myself against a desk cause oh god my legs couldn’t carry me. “I mean- was there a bottle inside your bag at something? Cause that thing EXPLODED!” 

“Shut up, bro. Shoot.” While I was still dying of laughter, Shuhei ran towards his bag. He opened it revealing soggy books, notebooks, and a wrecked sports water bottle. I tried to compose myself cause it would be rude to laugh at his misery. Shuhei raked his hands through his hair, messing up--or rather making his hair messier. “AH! I really screwed the pooch with this one.” 

Nope, no composure in this house. I started laughing again, still holding to the desk for dear life as giggles racked my body. I weakly raised my hand to point at him. “Bro! You’re so dumb, why would you even do that!!”

“It was a moment of weakness!” He grabs his phone and stares at the time. “Shit! I’m gonna be late for practice.” He starts dumpin’ all the soggy stuff in his bag and books it for the door. It should be impossible but after hearing that I laughed harder. He’s almost out the door when he backtracked and stared at me, “Tomorrow before club activities, let’s finish the blocks then.”

I was too winded to respond verbally, so I gave him a thumbs up from where I was hunched over still laughing. I guess he got the message because he left the classroom and I just heard his footsteps echoing down the hall. Such a loveable dork. But still…

I look at the water slowly pooling beside the wall. “Well, it would be awfully rude of me not to clean the water up. Ah, the things you do for love.” I sighed. “I’ll go find a mo- or actually! I’ll just use my blazer!” I grabbed the blazer and start mopping with it. The blazer started soaking the water up with its fabric. As I look closer, I saw that it had some weird spots on it.

I pull the soggy blazer closer to my face. It did have weird stains in it. I extended the blazer and, did it shrink? It looked slightly smaller than before, but maybe that was because of the water it had soaked up. I squinted my eyes at it. It definitely looked different. Wait! SHOOT. The blazer wasn’t mine; it was Power ranger’s blazer!

“Well shoot me in the foot and call me Daisy.” Bruh, I had already ruined the blazer with soup and now water too? I mean, maybe the water would help with the stains, but now I had a soggy soup stained blazer. God, at least today club activities would be cut short. 

Not that I had any club activities since I wasn’t part of any club. Nice. Time to call my mom to pick me up. Technically I could walk home, but I wasn’t interested in walking for an hour and a half just to get home. It was way more economic to have my mom pick me up, economic for my legs at least. I dialed my Mom’s number. She answered after two rings.

“Good afternoon, this is Mari-.” I heard her mumble under her breath, although I couldn’t tell what exactly she had said. “My apologies, this is Miyami Mariko speaking. I’m busy at the moment but if you call in an hour or-”

I smiled. Mom was the sweetest woman ever, although she should take a break more often. “Mom, it’s me, Sakurai.”

“My love? Did something happen at school?” I was about to respond but she continued before I had time to even breathe.” I can always pick you up and take you home to rest.” She seemed worried but also clearly unaware of what time it was apparently.

“Nah, mom I’m good. Although, I would appreciate it if you came to pick me up. School’s over for the day after all.” 

“Oh, darling. I’m so sorry, how long have you been waiting?” 

“Eh, not that long to be honest. When are you going to come tho?” She hesitated to answer. That was answer enough, I already knew what she was going to say.

“I’m sorry Love but I’m really busy right now, have you called your dad yet to see if he can pick you up?” I made a negative noise. “Well, can you call him to as him?”

I cheerfully said to her, “Mom, dad doesn’t get out of work until nine today, remember? He rarely answers his phone when he’s working” 

“Oh, dang.” My body started tensing up, ugh I hated conversations like this. “I can call Steve to see if he can pick you up, he wouldn’t mind picking you up” My fingers tensed, and I was probably holding my phone too hard. Yikes.

“No, that’s okay. I still have club activities, I just wanted to make sure you could pick me up later today.” 

“You joined a club?” She seemed happy to hear that. But also, uhm, now I had to make up a club.

“I joined the,” I looked around and I saw a flyer for a book club, “, book club. Although I might join a photography club too.” 

“Oh? That’s nice Love. Just remember, don’t join anything that’s dangerous, okay? I can pick you up at six, is that alright?” I made a noise of affirmation. “Okay, I’ll see you then!” 

She hung up. Well, now I had to see how I could entertain myself for an hour. I looked back at the flyer. They met in the library. I mean, I guess I could give that club a try. I started putting my stuff away and then I saw the object of all my sorrows. The soggy gross blazer sat there. Mocking me. Almost like Power Ranger look alike. Ugh, okay time to put it away. 

I looked around the classroom and found a plastic bag. Lucky. I put the blazer in the bag and put it in my bag. Then I started to walk towards the library. The school’s library was huge, but they met in front of the fiction aisles, so I headed that way. Maybe joining a club would be fun. I could meet more people and- 

“Oof.”. “A-ah!”

I bumped into someone, and they proceeded to dump all their books in my foot. Ow. I bent over and started rubbing my injured foot. Damn, how many books were they carrying. I started picking them up.

“I-I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I looked up and I saw a girl staring down at me. She started picking up her books as well, she had nice glasses on. I wondered where she bought them. When she saw my face, she yelped and moved back and suddenly pointed at me. “It’s- It’s you!”

Me? I looked closer at her and boom. I realized who she was. “Oh shoot, it’s soup girl!”

She spluttered, “Sou-soup girl?”

I gave her an easy grin. “Oh man, I wasn’t expecting to see you! Are you okay? I hope I didn’t hurt you! Did I?” She shook her head, she looked kinda jittery, maybe she was scared of me. I should probably apologize. “Sorry about what happened at lunch.”

“It’s… okay, I guess. More importantly,” She bowed at me. Uh, what… “Thank you for standing up for me- even though it was technically your fault anyways… I mean, um” Soup girl covered her mouth, I noticed she had huge eyes or maybe they just widened from fear.

“Hell yeah it was my fault, don’t feel bad about saying the truth.” I tilted my head at her, “But, I don’t remember standing up for you? Not that I wouldn’t of course, you seem like a lovely person, but you might have the wrong person.” 

“No, it was you! After you dropped the soup? Well more like launched, uh Akashi-san was really scary, but you still told him off, I’m really grateful for that!” Oh, Akashi? Who was that? Anyways she looked very sincere, so I had to answer.

“Oh! You’re talking about Power Ranger dude, anyways It’s no biggy. Anyone would’ve done the same!” She looked mortified after I said, Power Ranger.

“Power Ranger...?”

“Yeah, his hair is red right? Maybe that’s the wrong person”

“N-no Akashi-san does have red hair, but he wouldn’t be happy with you calling that. He’s not,” She looked around and hunched over herself. “He’s not very...nice.” She whispered. Oh, well power ranger doesn’t sound like a nice person. 

“Oh.”

“...Yeah…” Soup girl and I finished picking up the books I offered to carry them and take them to wherever she needed them. 

“It’s okay, I can take them, um…”

“Nah, It’s fine, they’re not that heavy.” They were, heavy that is. My arms strained against the weight, but I had to carry on. Even if I would be sore tomorrow, she guided me to where she was sitting, and I placed the books down on a table.

“So why do you have so many books anyways?” I said to her.

“Well, this is- I’m part of the book club so I’m here for the meeting. Even though I’m late.” She smiled at me.

“Twenty minutes late to be precise, Ayano.” We both jumped at the sudden voice. I looked around to see where the voice landed until I saw a dude sitting down at the table, I just placed the books at. Had he always been there?

Soup girl--Ayano? -- grinned at him. “Chihiro-sempai! I’m sorry I’m late. One of my teachers had me stay behind and I bumped into someone on the way, so I got delayed. I still brought all the books we wanted to read for the next few months! They were heavy but the person I bumped into helped me bring them here.” She turned to me and said, “Thank you, um I don’t know your name sorry.”

“It’s no problem, I’m Sakurai, nice to meet you.” 

“I’m Miura Ayano, I’m a second-year student. Oh! And that’s Mayuzumi Chihiro-sempai. He’s a third-year student.”

The guy- Chihiro got up and bumped Ayano’s head with a book. “I can introduce myself Ayano. Anyways, are you a foreigner?” he asked.

“Chihiro-sempai! You can’t ask that to strangers! Even though I was curious about that as well…” I laughed at them both. 

“Do you think I am?” I asked them.

Ayano fervently shook her head, Chihiro on the other hand. “Yes, the way you talk, your posture, and the away you introduce yourself strongly point towards being a foreigner.” Ayano started smacking Chihiro on the arm, but his expression never changed. He had one hell of a poker face.

“I mean you’re not wrong, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide.” I winked at him, and he just nodded in response. “The last name is Miyami. Anyways, you said this was the book club?” 

“Yeah! Would you like to join Miyami-san?” I nodded at her and her whole demeanor brightened up. “Yay! Now we have enough members to officially register as a club Sempai!” Ayano and Chihiro high-fived each other. Ayano seemed more excited but I also saw Chihiro smiling as well.

“In what grade are you Miyami?” Chihiro asked after we all settled down in the chair.

“I’m a first-year student.” 

“That’s great! You can call me ‘Miura-sempai’ and call Chihiro ‘Mayuzumi-sempai’.” Oh shoot, last names are the polite way to refer to others. Oops. Good thing I didn’t say their names out loud, I guess.

“You don’t have to call me sempai, Mayuzumi is fine. Anyways, let’s move on to the books.”

“Oh yeah! Do you like light novels Miyami-kun?” We discussed our different interests and Miura and Mayuzumi showed me their favorite authors and books. It wouldn’t be so bad to join this club.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Akashi this chapter, but next chapter perhaps. Also rip Akashi's Blazer.


	3. Basketball? In this economy?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I learned how to add dividers today so! Now I can add small time skips which is nice. Anyways, enjoy!

“Yo bro. You got the goods?” I raised my hand to greet Shuhei.

“Hell yeah, I got the goods bro.” Shuhei raised his hand and showed me a plastic bag. My feet echoed in the hallway as I walked closer. The bag crinkled noisily as he lifted for me to inspect. I gasped when I saw the contents, the bag had different types of sandwiches-- some sweet and some savory. “It cost a bit more since the guy that sold them had to go through some trouble to go buy them, but they’re really good so I’d say it’s worth it.”

“Bro...They look so good bro.” I was probably drooling at that point, but it was for a reason. I had no clue how he managed to convince someone to buy the sandwiches. The nearest convenience store was thirty minutes away by foot, maybe nine minutes in a bicycle so whoever it was would’ve had to skip school. The thing was, attendance is mandatory in Rakuzan, so halls are heavily monitored during class time making it almost impossible to skip class without being caught. 

When I asked him about it Shuhei just hummed. He tilted his head at me suddenly and grinned. “I have my ways.” He scratched the back of his head and blushed a little. “Or-well, not me to be exact but you know what I mean.” Aw, he got embarrassed. Shuhei did get embarrassed fairly quickly.

“I’ve got you, bro, I’ve got you.” I patted his back. With my arm I moved him along the hall. “Now let’s go back to the classroom. I could, potentially, have someone waiting there for me.”

Shuhei made an inquisitive noise at me but I just waved him off. As we made our way back to the classroom I hummed a song I had recently heard, it was a catchy tune. After a while, I took my water bottle out of my bag and decided to take a little sip. Humming for so long will make anyone’s throat dry.

“ Saku-tan! Well if it isn’t my favorite classmate!” 

Someone hardcore slapped my back making me choke on my water, sending water flying everywhere from my water bottle. I stumbled and braced myself against Shuhei so I wouldn’t fall. Shuhei grunted at the added weight but otherwise took it like a champ. Huh, I guess being active does make you stronger. 

I got back on my feet, coughing to get rid of the water on my lungs while Shuhei smacked my back with more force than needed. Ouch. I screwed the cap back on my water bottle. Looking back to see who had done that piece of s- I mean that piece of crap move. I was graced by the sight of my classmate, Ryouji. 

“Why hello there, Hanako.” My voice was a little bit hoarse from all the coughing. I could still feel something in my throat, gross. “Thank you for almost making me fall, I really appreciated it!” 

Ryouji clicked his tongue and pouted at me.”Are you okay Saku-tan? It seems like you choked there.” He grinned at me, his eyes wrinkling on the sides. He might fool others into thinking he was being friendly but the left side of his mouth was twitching. He was annoyed. Good. “Ah! It’s Hanazaki Saku-tan, not Hanako. I can forgive you for that though. Not all of us are good at retaining information.” He cooed. Rude trash bag.

“Oh! You’ve got it all wrong Hamtaro! I only retain useful information, but now that you reminded me I’ll definitely remember your name, Hamada!” I crooned at him. Shuhei comedically stared at me and then at Ryouji. His mouth was wide open and he was openly frowning. He was probably confused at this situation and frankly-- to a certain degree-- so was I. Ryouji was perfectly nice to me the first time we met, so I had no clue when he started getting upset with me. One day we were kind of friends, and next one he’s being all passive-aggressive and stuff.

Ryouji huffed and looked away. “I guess people like,” He looked at me up and down, making me bristle. “, you can’t help but be rude, maybe you should work on that Saku-tan!” And with that, he strutted away the back of his soles clicking on the tiles. 

God, he was annoying. Just five seconds of conversation with him was enough to piss me off. Like, did he really have to come over just to be passive-aggressive at me? Even I had better things to do than go around bothering people. And that’s coming from a small child filled with rage. Ugh, how annoying.

“You okay there dude?” I stopped my inner monologue and turned to look at Shuhei. I acknowledged him with a hum. “You’re gripping that water bottle a bit too hard.” I glanced down and yeah, I was basically choking the hell out of my water bottle, yikes. I unclenched my hand and took some deep breaths.

I shrugged at Shuhei to appease him, judging by his expression my anger was still apparent on my face. “Yeah man, he’s just godawful to be around,” I answered him.

“Why was he talking to you like that?” Shuhei frowned, looking back at where Ryouji disappeared to and positioned himself slightly closer to me. Was he guarding me or something?

I shook my head, raising my hands in mock defense. “I don’t know man, maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something.” 

“That… that sounded a bit more personal than just someone being grumpy because of lack of sleep. Has he been bothering you?” His fingers clenched around the bag.

I grinned at him, my shoulders relaxing. Shuhei was a real one, and it was obvious he cared. I smacked him in the shoulder and he yelped glaring at me. I pulled my sleeve up and I flexed at him. “Nah man, I’m good. If he keeps annoying me I’ll just have to square up with him. I’m not afraid to throw hands with entitled brats.”

“Bro, sure, I guess you can. Just... be careful who you pick fights with. You have the self-preservation and the impulse control of a squirrel, which means you get in trouble way too often. And some people here are really nasty when it comes to that and I don’t want you to end up hurt or something” My comment was supposed to make him feel better, but judging by his suddenly tense shoulders that clearly didn't work, my bad.

But also, ‘nasty’, huh? We walked past some upperclassmen and greeted them as they went by. I stroked my chin, still thinking about what Shuhei said. I opened my mouth and said, “By ‘nasty’, what exactly are you referring to?”

Shuhei looked at me. He opened his mouth and quickly closed it, he was hesitating. Weird. Shuhei bit his lip and finally grumbled, “Do you know why I didn’t want to go to the Cafeteria today?” I shook my head. He wasn’t expecting that cause he just squinted at me before scratching his leg. “Well- okay that’s fair. Do you remember what happened yesterday with that dude?”

“A lot of things happened yesterday Shuhei, you have to be more specific.” We reached the classroom and proceeded to seat down on our usual spot. But also, Shuhei was right, he had been oddly fidgety when lunch started. I guess I never thought about why he didn’t want to go to the cafeteria. He just said he wanted to eat lunch in the classroom and that was that.

“When you dropped a bowl of soup on that one dude’s head,” he said, not looking me in the eye.

Oh, that. “You mean the whole thing with Power Ranger? I mean yeah, I remember. I talked to some people yesterday and they told me he was really rude. I think his name was Akira or something. What a prick.”I kicked some trash away from my desk. Out of nowhere, I had Shuhei’s sweaty hand on my mouth as he hurriedly hushed me. I shoved him off, “The hell dude?”

“Shh, you can’t go around saying that type of thing about him, and it’s not Akira. It’s Akashi. Akashi Seijurou to be precise. He’s one of the richest dudes of the school and he’s got a reputation.” He sat down and passed me some sandwiches. We stayed silent for a minute or so, I looked at Shuhei, who was cradling a half-eaten sandwich in his hands, absentmindedly staring at it.

He took a breath and continued. “Rumor says that at his old school, whoever went against him had their lives made hell. He even had three students expelled. Some people say he would also get physical when he got mad.” Um, okay. That’s kind of concerning.

“That… that’s a yikes moment.” Shuhei grimly nodded at me. “But also, how old could he had been, fourteen? There’s no way he could’ve gotten away with getting physical with others, especially if it was a rich people school like this one.” 

Shuhei shook his head. “No bro, it makes sense. If you stay in the same room with him for more than five seconds you would be able to tell there’s something wrong with him. You have to be careful around people like him.” I love Shuhei but come ’n.

“Shuhei, you do realize that you’re doing almost the exact same thing Shouji was doing to me? We don’t even know this dude, he can’t be like that bad. Obviously, he sucks but-”

“No, this is a different Sakurai. Look, just promise me you won’t go around picking fights with him.” I did but Shuhei still gave me a stern glance. “You better mean. Actually, you can do something even better, don’t even go close to him.” Oops. Something must’ve shown on my face because Shuhei looked exasperated and concerned, again. “Sakurai... What did you do!?”

“Nothing man! I just invited him to come to the classroom to pick up his blazer. The one I got dirty yesterday? That’s why I was pushing so hard for us to come here quickly. I have to give it back.” Shuhei’s eyes widened. He was about to talk when the door slid open with a bang. Shuhei and I both jumped in our seats.

“Miyami-kun! Chihiro-sempai and I came over to give you the complete list of books we’ll be reading this year. It’s really good if I do say so myself! Right, sempai?” Ayano stepped from the doorframe alongside… Um... No one?

“Uh…” Shuhei and I looked at each other. “Do you know this chick?” Shuhei mouthed at me. I just hushed him.

“Miura,” I started but she glared at me, “-sempai. Uh, who are you...talking to?” She smiled satisfied with me calling her ‘sempai’.

“Well, Chihiro-sempai of course. He’s right he- Huh? Where did he go?” Aya-Miura-sempai looked around and walked by the entrance while she waved her hands in front of her. Shuhei raised his eyebrows at her and then at me. Yeah, she did look a bit… um. It was a weird sight, let’s leave it at that. “I guess he left… weird.”

I started to talk, “Well-”

“I’m right here Ayano.” As if from nowhere Chi-Mayuzumi appeared from thin air. Shuhei tried to jump out of his seat with a strangled yelp, which he failed to do and ended up sprawled on the floor tangled with a chair. A-Miura-sempai and I both screamed when Mayuzumi spoke. 

“Where the fuck did you come from” Shuhei spat out as he pointed at Mayuzumi with rage from the floor. 

“I was right behind her. I even waved at you Miyami.” He pointedly looked at me, his eyebrows were furrowed. Almost as if asking me to agree with him. Yeah, I’d be pretty annoyed too if something like this happened to me. Sadly, I didn’t see him. When I mentioned as much his eyebrows furrowed even more.

“There, there.” Miura-sempai patted his back. “We just didn’t see you sempai. Anyways, who is this Miyami-kun? Is he your friend?” At the word friend, Miura-sempai's eyes glinted and she clapped her hands in front of her chest with glee.

Shuhei got up and bowed. “I’m Watanabe Shuhei, Sakurai’s friend. It’s nice to meet you.”

“O-oh!” Miura-sempai hurriedly bowed back. “I’m Miura Ayano and this is-”

Mayuzumi cut her off, “Mayuzumi Chihiro.”

“Yeah what he said!” She vigorously nodded. “ We are Miyami-kun’s sempais from the book club! Which you are totally invited to join as well, of course!” 

“Thanks, I’m already part of a club so I’ll have to decline.”

“Oh! What club Watanabe-kun?”

“I’m part of the baseball club! I’m a batter!”

“You do have the usual build of an athlete,” Mayuzumi said eyeing him, which Miura-sempai and I both agreed to. Shuhei just laughed. “Miyami,” hearing my name I looked at him. “Why are you not eating at the cafeteria? There’s more space there.” 

“I was wondering that too!” Miura-sempai asked. 

“Well, I had to give Power Ranger his blazer back” I answered.

Mayuzumi frowned. “Power Ranger?” Miura-sempai and Shuhei paled.

“Miyami-kun you can’t call him that-” “Bro, stop calling him by that-” 

“Calling who ‘Power Ranger’ exactly, Sakurai.” a voice said.

We all screeched, I mean almost all of us. Mayuzumi just startled a little. I swiveled back and came face to face with Power Ranger, aka… Akashi? Yeah, Akashi.

“JESUS CHRIST” I shouted, “Warn a man, bro. When did you even come in?” 

“Why would I do that.” He said standing at the front entrance of the classroom. I spluttered.

“What? What do you- are you talking about warning someone when you come in a room?” He nodded. ”Well, cause it’s polite dude” He just raised his brow, looking at me as if I was the dumbest human being alive. He even glared at me. Okay?

“Why should I be polite to you?” I glowered at him. Wow, rude. Shuhei was correct about there being something wrong with him. That something was being a huge dick. Power Ranger raised his eyebrows. “Well?”

“I already said cause it’s polite, man. Anyways, let me get your blazer for you.” I chose to ignore how rude he was. Power Rangers eyes widened, he looked unsure. I turned around and started digging through my bag. Aha! I found it! 

I pulled out a box with a bow on it. Very cute. After my mom heard about the soup accident, because I told her of course, she arranged everything to have the blazer cleaned. She even packed it in an adorable package. Well, she did all of that after scolding me for a hot second. 

“Here you go!” I presented him the box with a smile. Power Ranger glided gracefully through the desks, he slowly grabbed the box and started opening it. He took his blazer out of the box and started inspecting it. I smirked. That blazer was cleaner than anything in my house. Mom took hygiene very seriously after all. Apparently, Power Ranger saw it was clean too because he nodded and put the blazer back into the box.

“See! I told you it was going to be clean! Well, that’s that I guess. See you later.” I started putting away my stuff back in its proper place. Organizing was the key to living a healthy life after all. Someone cleared 

“We’re not done yet.” Power Ranger said while staring at me, like hardcore staring. Uh... Okay? He advanced towards me, my body automatically moved backwards to get away.

“He already gave you the blazer, just leave him alone.” Shuhei said, his voice was shaky. I turned to look at him and he was pale and sweaty. His hands were shaking around his food.

“Y-yeah...” Agreed Miura-sempai. “Miyami-kun a-already did his part.” She was also shaking. I looked at Mayuzumi but he was just silently watching Akashi. He never once strayed his eyes from Akashi’s form.

“He owes me and that debt will be paid. I did inform you that you would receive a fitting punishment.” He said motioning towards me with his head. 

“What? Punishment, what are you talking about!?” I demanded but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at Shuhei unblinkingly. I turned around but Shuhei was just glaring at Akashi. “Hey! I said what do you mean by ‘Punishment’?!” He finally looked away from Shuhei and instead smirked at me. I swore his left eye glowed, again.

“I don’t think you’re stupid enough not to know what the word punishment means, but I wouldn’t put it past you.” He laughed. I grunted angrily, but he ignored me and then continued. “Nonetheless I’ve been studying you and you have skills I can put to use. I’ve decided that you are to join the Basketball club.” 

The basketball club? That was kind of random but also, me? Join the basketball club? I was a bit taken back. I blinked at him and laughed.

“Uh, thanks for that wack invitation but I’m already part of a club. Thanks again tho. I’m just not one for sports I guess.” I scratched the back of my head, oddly touched that he thought I was athletic enough to join a sports club. Akashi didn’t say anything, he just stood there.

“I think you misheard me. You are() joining the basketball club.” He finally uttered. Still, I was not joining the basketball club. Like out of all the clubs why Basketball specifically. Baseball would be understandable, I guess. Basketball though. 

“Liste-” “He said he’s not joining your club Akashi-san.” 

Before I could answer Miura-sempai did. Her eyes were watery but she still looked Akashi right in the eye. Her head was raised high and she had moved to stand closer to me.

Power Ranger glared at her but then smirked. He promptly nodded to himself. “I recognize you. You were part of the incident yesterday. I should’ve realized you knew each other. Buy you, let me give you a piece of advice” His shoes clicked on the floor as he walked closer, completely ignoring me but positively looming over her. “You should stay out of things that don’t concern you. Especially when you don’t understand them.”

Shuhei got slightly up from where he was sitting. He slammed his hands down on the desk with his head facing the desk. “You can’t talk to an upperclassman like that, Akashi.”

Akashi glared at Shuhei but he still walked closer to Miura-sempai, making her step back. I placed myself in between both of them. Shuhei had lifted his head and was glaring at Akashi. Shuhei looked ready to fight him. Clearly, I had to stop this interaction, the sooner the better.

I put my arm between Akashi and where Shuhei was sitting and gently pushed Akashi back. He didn’t budge. “Play nice bro. He’s not picking a fight with you so chill out. Stop being so damn rude.”

“I thought I had told you to recognize who your betters are.” Shuhei and Miura-sempai both gasped, Akashi stared them down at the sound. He was looking at them as if they were nothing. 

“And I thought I told you I had and never will have any ‘betters’.” I asserted, planting myself down and refusing to lose ground. He stayed silent. In any other situation silence was a sign of a victory in arguments, but I could feel that wasn’t the case.

Akashi advanced, I had placed my arm down and he was using that at his advantage.“I am absolute. So let me teach you the difference in social standing between us.” I was about to respond when he was suddenly face to face with me.

“Lower your head.” 

What? I was about to make fun of him for being corny when I noticed the way everyone else when I noticed how silent the room was. I looked back and Shuhei had sitten back down facing downward. Miura-sempai and Mayuzumi were also looking down. Clearly they were avoiding Akashi’s sight. They refused to look at Akashi's form, much less his face. Miura-sempai looked especially shaken up.

“Guys?” I stepped back, not breaking eye contact with Akashi, to get closer to Miura-sempai. She was violently shaking. I had no clue what happened. One second we were talking semi normally and then everyone was about to have a nervous breakdown. “Sempai? Are you alright?” I shook her shoulder but she just gently pulled away from me.

I heard a chuckle. Who? I looked up and I saw Akashi. He was looking at us while smirking, his face looking triumphant. 

“I see you finally recognize your place. I don’t allow anyone to look down on me.” 

...

“Hey, what’s your problem dude.” I spat. My arm snapped forward and I grabbed the front of Akashi’s shirt. I jostled him and forced him to stare at me. His eyes lazily stared into mine. I could feel my body hand shaking, I wasn’t scared. I was furious.

“My problem?” He said, he looked perfectly fine with me pulling at him. I clenched my teeth, my jaw tense. I mutedly motioned at everyone else, trying to clue him in on whatever the hell happened there. Akashi didn’t react besides arching his eyebrow at my hand. My face scrunched in fury.

I brought him forward with my grip before pushing him backwards and letting his shirt go. He stumbled backwards and glared at me.“What’s your deal? You think you can come in all high and mighty and tell us what to do? Well newsflash dickface, that’s not how the real world works. So how ‘bout you go mind your own goddamn business and leave us the hell alone!”

Akashi stared at me wide-eyed. He looked at me, almost non believing. His mouth was wide open but nothing came out.

He righted himself and mumbled something. I grunted at him in question, his brow furrowed before it smoothed over. His face was completely relaxed.“It is of no importance.”I finally heard.

“Hell yeah, it’s not. Now piss off. And for the record, I’m not joining any clubs, especially any club that has a prick like you.” He glared at me. Well boohoo, it wasn’t the first time I had been glared at. Especially by him, so I sure wasn’t affected by it. I glared right back at him.

“We’ll see about that. I’ll be seeing you, Sakurai.” He dusted himself off and just walked away.

“Like hell, you will,” I muttered angrily to his retreating back. Geez. I turned towards the others absentmindedly. “Honestly the nerve of some people. They can be so damn rude-“

I heard a small sound. A hiccup. More like a sob really. Miura-sempai was sliding down, finally sitting on the floor and hugging her leg. She hid her face on her knees, but her shoulders heaved up and down erratically.

“S-sempai?” I hurriedly knelt next to her. My hands hovered over her form, I didn’t know what to do. Was it my fault? Did I do something wrong? Did Akashi do something to her and I didn't notice? “Are you okay? Okay clearly you’re not, how can I help?”

Miura-sempai shook her head, “I-I’m sorry Miyami-kun. I made him m-mad and now he’s going to take it out on you. I’m so sorry.” She blubbered. Her shoulders were hunched and her whole body was tense. At some point, she had grabbed into my shirt and was clutching it with shaking fingers. 

“It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I shouldn’t have pushed him like that. I’m sorry Sakurai.” Shuhei butted in. What? I turn to look at him but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. What was going on? He wasn’t supposed to be sad, no one was supposed to be sad. 

I opened my mouth, I didn’t know what to say. I was distraught. My hand snaked down and rested by my shin. “Obviously it’s no one but Akashi’s fault. You shouldn’t feel responsible for someone else’s actions Ayano, Watanabe.” Mayuzumi said, hitting Miura-sempai with the back of a book. My head as well as Shuhei’s snapped towards him. Shuhei gaped at him before he nodded.

Mayuzumi looked down at me, “Don’t beat yourself up either, Miyami.” I wasn’t expecting Mayuzumi to say that. Not that I thought he was a bad person, but we didn’t know each other for even more than a day. He was… he was nice.

“Miyami-kun? Ar-are you okay?” Miura-sempai asked me, I lifted my brow at her. She had stopped crying, although her eyes were still watery and red. “You-your leg.” She pointed at my leg.  
I looked down and I saw I was clawing at my leg. I let go of my leg as if I was burnt. I quickly smoothed over my pants and smiled at Miura-sempai. “Nah man I’m fine! I’m just pissed. Power Ranger sure is rude huh? Next time I see him I’ll square up!” 

“No!” Shuhei and Miura-sempai screamed at the same time. They looked at each other in shock. I felt my shoulders shaking and I put my head on the crook of my arm. 

“Sakurai?” Shuhei said worriedly. Miura-sempai gently touched my shoulder. I lifted my head and I was full-on laughing. 

“Huh?” Miura-sempai yelped. That made me laugh harder.

“W-what’s your deal man!” Shuhei said, at some point, he had gotten up and was now sitting down next to me. He grabbed my arms and pulled them away from my face, putting my joyful face on full view. “What’s so funny, huh!”

“Y-you should’ve seen your face when you-” I wheezed. I pointed at both of them. “ -when you both yelled at the same time. And the- and then you looked at each other!” I trailed off. Miura-sempai and Shuhei both got red. They looked at each other and after staring at each other for a few seconds they started laughing. Even Mayuzumi was chuckling.

“You’re so red Miura-san!” Shuhei said while pointing at Miura-sempai. He started smacking his leg while wheezing.

“Look at yourself! Y-you look like a-” She snorted. “-a tomato!” She started cackling like a hyena.

Mayuzumi looked at Shuhei, he tilted his head. “A tomato huh…” Mayuzumi nodded.

Shuhei spluttered and pointed at Mayuzumi. “I-I’m not! I don’t look like a- like a tomato!” Meanwhile, I was rolling on the floor clutching my stomach and laughing. I tried to sit up while shaking my head.

“You totally do, dude! You’re so red!” I giggled. Shuhei jumped on me and started wrestling me. He pinned me on the floor and started mock fighting me. 

“S-shut up dude! That’s not true!” He softly hit me in the stomach, but I still couldn't stop laughing. Miura-sempai and Mayuzumi we’re both softly chuckling at our antics. Miura-sempai cheered me on as we rolled around on the ground.  
After a while, our laughter tapered off and we just sat on the floor gasping for air. I smiled at Shuhei as we bumped shoulders. Mayuzumi tapped my shoulder.

“What are you going to do about Akashi? Judging by his character he is going to keep bothering you.” 

Miura-sempai slowly made her way over us. She adjusted her glasses and clutched a paper in her hands “That’s right. Akashi-san is probably going to hunt you down until you join his club.” She looked away. “I-if you want to leave the club and join him… We’ll understand it.” She looked at Mayuzumi and they nodded at me.

I jumped on my feet and shook my head. “Nah, like hell I’m leaving the club! You need three people to make the club official! And I wouldn’t want to join a club with a prick like him.”

“He’s still going to keep bothering you, bro,” Shuhei added. 

“Let him! I don’t care who he thinks he is, I'm not going to let me boss me around!” Miura-sempai fidgeted on her spot before she steeled herself and smiled.

“Yeah! He might be scary… but we’ve got this, right sempai, Watanabe-kun!”

“Right!” Shuhei and Mayuzumi answered. I smiled and my shoulder began to relax. There, now they were happier. 

The bell suddenly rang and all of us startled. “Oh shoot, lunch is over! And we didn’t even finish our sandwiches Shuhei!” We both slumped over each other and let out a sigh.

Miura-sempai pulled Mayuzumi’s sleeve. “Sempai! We didn’t eat our food either!”

“It’s okay Ayano, we can eat during the club meeting. You’re invited to come if you’d like to, Watanabe.” Shuhei tilted his head.

“Yeah! If you don’t have any club activities you should come over! We would love to have you, Watanabe-kun!” Miura-sempai nodded happily. Shuhei said something but I stopped paying attention. I looked towards the door Akashi had left through and frowned. Maybe the rumors about him were right. Hm.

“Mayumi,” Mayuzumi said and I moved my head towards him. I smiled and rejoined the conversation. We said some pleasantries and then Miura-sempai and Mayuzumi both left for their classrooms. Shuhei went to sit back in his seat. I sat back down on my desk and placed my chin on my hand.

* * *

“Miyami-kun! You made it! Chihiro-sempai and I waited for you.” Miura-sempai waved at me from her where she was standing. I smiled at her and jogged over. Her arms were straining with the weight of the books she was carrying. 

“Hey, sempai! Want me to help you with some of those books?” 

She shook her head. “No, thank you Miyami-kun but I’ve got it covered. You can help Chihiro-sempai though!” I nodded and looked around, searching for Mayuzumi.

I was about to ask Miura-sempai where Mayuzumi was when I heard a hoarse whisper. 

“H-help.”

A ghost? I didn’t believe in ghosts, however, that didn't mean I wasn’t scared of them I turned around tense. “Di-did you hear that sempai?”I said stuttering,

Miura-sempai laughed and nodded. “Un! That was Chihiro-sempai! Anyways, I’m off!” She adjusted her grip on the books and stalked away, I guess she wasn’t struggling with the weight. I looked around for Mayuzumi when I heard his voice again.

“Miya-Miyami, behind you.” I spun around and sure enough, Mayuzumi was behind me. “Sem-! I mean, Mayuzumi! Are you okay?!” I hurried over and took the stack of books out of his arms. Mayuzumi was sweaty and looked dead on his feet. “Why were you carrying so many books!”

“Don..Don’t ask.” He said panting for air. I just nodded in doubt, but it wasn’t anything of concern so I just carried on. We walked side to side, I was carrying most of the books which were heavy as hell, but my pride didn’t allow me to put some down to make two trips instead of one. 

“A-AH!” We heard a yelp. It was Miura-sempai. Mayuzumi and I both looked at each other before we hurried to where we had met yesterday. Mayuzumi was in front of me because he was carrying fewer books than me, he was also pretty speedy. He suddenly stopped and I just moved closer at a very slow pace.

“Sempai? Are you okay?” I said, finally catching up to them. Mayuzumi was looking at whatever was ahead with tense shoulders, I couldn’t see what they were looking at. The tall stack of books blocked my view. I moved my body sideways and froze.

“Hello there, Sakurai.” Akashi stood up from the table he was sitting at. He sauntered over to where we were all standing. He walked past Miura-sempai’s tense form and Mayuzumi’s defensive pose. Akashi stopped right in front of me and suddenly jumped up and I grabbed a book from the stack I was carrying. He softly landed and smirked. “Greetings to you as well, Ayano, Chihiro.”

Miura-sempai and Mayuzumi both tensed and took a step back. I just stood there dumbfounded. What was he doing here? I furrowed my brows and his smile widened in response. He took a paper from the table and showed it to us. All of us gasped.

It was a club registration form.

“It seems I’ll be part of the book club from now on” My eyes widened as we stared at each other, my whole body was tense. He bowed his head at us.

“Please treat me well from now on”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we did have a lot of Akashi time this chapter, although probably not the way some people expected it to be. Unless this was exactly what you were expecting, in that case kudos to you. 
> 
> Hopefully next chapter we'll see some Rakuzan team members, probably not tho lol.
> 
> I'll see ya'll next chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading ya'll. I dare you to leave a comment, no balls.


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